· So the LHC hasn’t destroyed the world yet? Great. Have a T-shirt to celebrate.

· The International Space Station goes wireless. Now, if only we could get there after 2010…

· If you’re going to drive a solar car in Alaska, make it more normal-looking than this one, unless you want trouble from the cops.

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We’ve been over and over the fact that the chances the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest particle acclerator, will destroy the Earth are infinitesimal at best. But the doomsday crowd is still nervous, and growing more so as the official launch date—this coming Wednesday—draws near. In fact, The Telegraph reports, top physicists affiliated with the LHC have been receiving numerous nasty letters and even death threats from paranoid people.

Some call the public relations office with tearful requests to stop the project, CERN officials say, or send emails asking the scientists to reassure them that the world won’t come to an end next week. One of the angrier letter-writers says, “You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world.”

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· You can buy land on Mars. Seriously. You just have to figure out how to live there.

· The world’s space agencies might not speak the same language, but one small box could connect them all.

· The Simpsons was right—bottlenose dolphins are vicious killers.

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Question: How do you celebrate the culmination of 14 years of work to build the world’s largest particle accelerator?

Answer: By rapping (and bad dancing.)

Yes, the Large Hadron Collider, that 17-mile ring under the Swiss and French Alps, is fast approaching its official launch date a week from tomorrow. And while scientists have been running tests and warming up its accelerators to prepare for the day, something else has been heating up: an online video of a rap about the LHC, created by Kate McAlpine of Michigan State University.

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· Scientists have found the next great weapon against bacteria: marijuana.

· The Large Hadron Collider isn’t going to destroy the Earth, but if it did, it would look really cool from afar.

· Chris Mooney looks at Gustav, the storm forming in the Caribbean, and says, “Uh-oh.”

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When the Large Hadron Collider at CERN turns on for the first time in September, scientists may discover exciting new particles that either solidify or shatter the laws of physics. But until that happens, we might as well revel at the outrageous, creative theories surrounding the super-speed particle accelerator.

First we heard about the disaster that will occur when the LHC turns on, including miniature black holes that will swallow the planet; scientists quickly debunked that hypothesis. Now two physicists claim in a new study that no matter how hard we try, we may never turn the LHC on at all.

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The Large Hadron Collider is almost ready. Scientists are cooling the components of this giant underground accelerator to extreme temperatures—already -350 degrees Fahrenheit in some places—in anticipation of activating it next month. But don’t expect immediate answers—first physicists are going to have to wade through the sea of numbers.

Nature reports today that the LHC will create 700 megabytes of data per second. If you stacked the number of CDs necessary to store a year’s worth of LHC’s data, the pile would reach 20 kilometers into the air, or about 12.5 miles.

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In a few months, the Large Hadron Collider will begin creating the most energetic collisions ever seen on Earth, hoping to tackle fundamental questions about our universe—but not everyone is ready to party. Fears that physics at the LHC will lead to the catastrophic destruction of our planet are being rehashed, and this time, the fear pushers are taking their case to federal court.

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